Thought this might interest you as an example of local deals gone bad.

If people bought this as pitched – 500 coupons available to “Treat him and the whole family to a game this Father’s Day with today’s offer…”, this 14 lane bowling alley would be smashed. It would be a HORRIBLE customer experience for full-price customers and discount customers. They’re likely to hurt their business with this offer if they get what they asked for.

To your previous point, why would you make an offer like this on a day that you might be already be busy (probably with folks that aren’t price-sensitive)? Looks like Google isn’t any better than Groupon at advising their advertisers in this regard.

Please treat this as anonymous. I work for a company that does business with Groupon, so I’d prefer that my name not be used in reference to these comments.